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Ok, I can’t keep this news a secret any longer- I’m coming to NYC in August!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE-

I’m actually going to be teaching a class at Workroom Social while I’m there! Yay!! This is something Jennifer and I have been in cahoots about since I visited in March, and we finally settled on a good date and I bought my plane ticket! To say I’m excited is an understatement (although I reckon my overuse of exclamation points probably hinted at something, haha) – I love NYC, I love sewing, I love teaching, and I love helping people get all excited about sewing! So! Let’s sew together, yeah?

I guess I should give you some class details! I’m running Jennifer’s Weekend Pants-Making Intensive on August 16-17 (Saturday and Sunday). Yep, we are gonna make PANTS (or shorts… you know, whatever floats yer boat) – and they are gonna be awesome! Y’all know how much I love a good trouser pattern, and how geekily excited I get about pants-fitting and pants-making-techniques, so I’m REALLY excited to have an excuse to share this loveee in Brooklyn!

If you haven’t taken a class at Workroom Social, you are in for a treat. All of Jennifer’s sewing intensives are stocked with pre-made muslins in all the pattern’s sizes. You start by trying on a sample to determine sizing and adjustments needed, then we go into full-on pants-making-mode over the 2 day class. The class includes the pattern (a classic trouser pattern with a front fly), use of the equipment and tools, ME, and plenty of food. Seriously. Coffee in the morning, catered lunch, snacks and oh, did I mention there’s a cocktail hour at the end of both nights? Yeah. There’s a cocktail hour at the end of both nights (just in case you didn’t hear me the first time!). So basically, we are gonna get our sew on, get to hang out, and then you go home with the knowledge and skills to make all the pants and shorts that your heart desires (and probably end up with a completed pair by the end of class!). Arghhh so awesome!

If you are interested in taking the class (which you SHOULD be, because I am so so excited to teach it!!), you can read more about it and sign up here. I think this is a pretty cool opportunity for both locals and out-of-towners, since it’s two days over the weekend. Jennifer has lots of resources if you need help finding a place to stay (assuming you’re coming from out of town), so feel free to holler at her if you have questions! Also, I just booked my plane ticket and it was under $250 round-trip for those dates, so… yeah. Class spots are super limited, so sign up early!

I will actually be in NYC from 8/14-8/18, so if anyone wants to get and/or get our shop on while I’m on town, holler! I’ll mention it again when we get closer to the date :)

Another dumb cold day, another excuse to bust out these sweet pants. Ha! I love these so much, but I have a hard time finding a top that I like with them (especially color-wise). This particular top is nothing special – it’s originally from Banana Republic; I thrifted it a couple of years ago with the intention of using it as a pattern (it’s actually very similar to the Moneta sweater hack), because I hated the fabric but loved the shape. Obviously that never happened, but it’s got me inspired!

As I’ve said a few times, I’m kind of over circle skirts these days. I tried to pull this one out and make it work – I think it turned out pretty cute, but I do wish there was less skirt involved! Ha! I also tried to mix up how I wear this skirt – I usually just pair it with a mint top (the Pavlova I made to go with it is currently residing in the big scrapbag in the sky… bad fabric choice on my part :( ), but I wanted to try a little print-mixing. I do like how the floral looks with stripes, however, I think this Briar may be heading to the same big scrapbag in the sky. You can’t tell in this photo because of my cardigan, but it’s just tooo big all over. Lots of weird wrinkles at the armpit, ugh.

It was about this point that I realized I wasn’t even wearing my favorite handmades this month! I’ve been “saving” them for… well, I don’t know what, but it’s dumb and I should wear my favorite clothes! That’s why I made them! So, cherry Hawthorn (I love this pattern, and I have plans for more that should be put into action asap) + favorite Ferg shoes = awesome outfit.

See what I mean?? How have I not busted out the silk jersey until just now??? Ok, well, I fixed it :P

5/21, Wednesday
Dress: Handmade (will blog soon :))
Shoes: Nine West

And here’s me, on my birthday, in my birthday dress! :D This is a new me-made (I finished it with a couple of days to spare!) and I have no post about it… yet. Soon! What I will tell you is that the bodice pattern is Vogue 8664, and the fabric is stretch cotton sateen. Other than that, you’ll have to wait for the post :)

Also, thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes! I was basically bombarded all day with love (including a birthday tweet from Vogue patterns, hah!! YES!!) and it was pretty awesome :) I had a great birthday, too – ate a bunch of amazing food (including a fried green tomato BLT because YES I DID), hung out with my BFF, and oh, wore a pretty awesome dress :) Yay for bithdays!

Finally got to wear this Hollyburn! Yay! I need to make more tops to go with it because it’s kind of difficult to color match (hence why it hasn’t gotten wear yet!), but maybe I can make some of those Moneta tops :) Ha! I wore this all day at work, and then afterwards to celebrate my birthday a second time with Landon (he had to work on my proper birthday, oh well!). And by celebrate I mean we got hot chicken. Yum :)

A few people asked if this was my sewing studio… the answer is I WISH. Haha! It’s definitely not my sewing space (I’m still sewing at home, which I have no intentions of changing anytime soon!); it’s Elizabeth’s sewing studio. It’s just as lovely as it looks in the photo – if not more. Lots of gorgeous natural light and pretty things to look at. Also, that machine I’m standing by is my main man Turbo and it’s fucking amazing. It backtacks and clips the thread and you do it all from the pedal so it’s totally hands-free. Seriously amazing, like to the point where I’m debating with myself whether an industrial machine is a good thing to buy right now hahaha. Because I want one! BTW, Elizabeth is still looking for part-time seamstresses sooo if you wanna experience the love of all that is Turbo, holler at her!

And here we are today! I’m working from home, so naturally I had to dress up like a princess :) I love the Flora – thinking about channeling my inner Heather Lou and making a skirt with the pattern, because it’s SO much fun to wear. Seriously, every time I look at this dress in my closet I think, “naw, too fancy for today,” but then I actually put it on and it’s like, “idgaf I feel like a pretty pretty princess, whee!” haha. Anyone else feel that way with their me-mades? Man, I should dress up more.

That’s it for this week! FYI, the blog will probably be pretty quiet next week – because we’re going on vacation! Yeah!! Bout to take our annual trip to Santa Rosa Beach, FL, where I plan on spending the entire time laying on a towel, drinking beer and wearing my giant straw hat. I’ll still be updating my Twitter and Instagram for Me Made May, so follow along if you’re so inclined! I have a couple makes I’ve been saving specifically for this trip… including two bathing suits. Ooh la la! ;)

As a side note for those of you who are participating in My & Andi’s OAL, I was recently made aware that the sewing pattern we’ll be using is going to be on sale this weekend at Joanns! Definitely check your sales flyer to be sure (as it may differ for your state), but Simplicity patterns here will be 5 for $5 over Memorial Day weekend :) Woohoo! Great time to stock up if you’ve been on the fence :) And speaking of the OAL… I’m so so excited to kick this off. I bought my yarn last week, and while it was a liiiittle more than I planned on spending, it was totally worth it. It’s neon yellow and it swatched up so beautifully.

Well, you guys. I done goofed. I put this outfit together in hopes of the emerging spring – and oh, it is indeed emerging… so much that Landon had to mow the freakin front yard a couple weekends ago because it was sooo lush and green and, like, springy – but today is heartbreakingly gray, freezing, and the windiest of windys. I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me before I left the house this morning, but a giant circle skirt is NOT appropriate for this kind of wind. I managed to learn this lesson immediately after I flashed everyone on West End Avenue. Hope someone out there was nurturing a stockings fetish! Ahhh!

Anyway, I think this skirt fabric is a pretty amazing floral for the weird transitional months – it has those pretty, bright, springy flowers, but they’re smashed up against a black background so it’s still a little srs bsnss. And it looks great with black tights (I always get all weird about what color tights to wear with my spring dresses, ok!). I got it at the flea market last year and I’ve been hoarding it ever since.

I originally cut this skirt out a couple of months ago, during an afternoon sewing date with my boo Lauren W. My fabric was large enough for me to cut a full circle, but hers wasn’t, and I wanted to be a good friend (and also get an idea of wtf I was doing before ripping into her fabric), so we pieced the pattern out so it has 4 skirt pieces, and then added pockets. You can’t see my skirt seams because my fabric is so robust and floofy, but trust me, they’re there.
Anyway, the sewing-date ended with a fully seamed skirt with pockets, and then it sat in my sewing room for… well, until last Friday. Lauren has been making progress on her own skirt at home (aw yay!!) so I decided to finish mine up, so I could wear it with my new wrap top. Don’t they match so well?! Like it was ~meant to be.

You probably guessed that the skirt is not the Pavlova circle skirt – it’s just my standard, self-drafted circle skirt pattern. It’s like a sneaky Pavlova, since it was cut into 4 pieces. Also, it’s not hemmed with anything but a very simple narrow hem. The fabric has a lot of body, so it stands up pretty well on it’s own. Which is great, because I don’t have any horsehair braid right now :P

Anyway, let’s talk about the top! This is the wrap from the Pavlova pattern. I’m not even going to lie, I was a liiiiiittle apprehensive about sewing this pattern – something about that lapped seam on the neckline, not to mention the shoulder darts, looked intimidating! I really shouldn’t have worried, though – Steph has an incredible way of relaying instructions that makes them sooo easy to understand. The only problems I had with making this top was my topstitching – and I fault that to my fabric and lack of fusible hem tape to keep shit in place. I sewed a size 30 and made no alterations to the pattern.

My fabric is from NY – I bought it at Fabrics For Less. This was my very short, very solo return to the Garment District on Monday afternoon. Yes, after 2 full days in that madhouse, I WENT BACK. And I bought more fabric. Honestly, I was very upset about the lack of knits in my suitcase, so I got this mint cotton jersey as well as a matching red, and also the french terry for my Avocado hoodie. What? Why are you looking at me like that?

I don’t know if this jersey was the very *best* choice for this top – you can see everrrrrry single little lump under there (fyi, the line across my chest is actually from the hem of the wrap top, not my bra. Just so we’re clear ;)), as it’s super drapey and tissue thin. I just love the color though, and it goes with a huge chunk of my wardrobe! Word of warning – this is a short top. The front barely clears my waistband (which comes above my navel), and all my pants are too low to wear with it. The back is nice and long, though, which is sweet.

Also, this is one hell of a twirly skirt.

I forgot to mention – I added a thin line of mint piping between the waistband and the skirt, using a perfectly matching bias tape I had in my stash. Yes! I love it when these things work out!

Soooo… what’s next? Do I need plead a special case to the Sun God or what??

I looove giant repeat prints, but I find them difficult to sew – you want something that doesn’t have a lot of seams as to not break up that beautiful print (and thus render it obsolete). Unfortunately, less seams = less form-fitting, and if you’ve learned anything by lurking my closet for even five minutes, you will notice that I don’t do those loose shift-shapes.

I encountered this problem last year, and decided that circle skirts are a foolproof solution. You can’t disagree with me because I’m totally right, btw.

This is part 1 of Stuff I Made Using Birthday Gifts – Trice (which I might add – if you haven’t been introduced to her blog you HAVE to check out the mini tailored jacket she recently completed. It is so cute; I died a little) sent me a giftcard to Mood Fabrics & I immediately zeroed in on this Marc Jacobs cotton poplin. Ooh, big repeats! And I need a summer circle skirt… right? Right.

As per my other circle skirts, I followed Casey’s Circle Skirt Sew-along for construction, using the pattern I drafted last year. I kept this one pretty simple/summery – cotton skirt, topstitched waistband & hem, no lining. Easy stuff!

And I just so happened to have this hot pink belt that matches the background color perfectly… dontcha love it when that happens? :D

Circle skirts are magical!

And just so you know I’m forreal here –
It is -literally- a circle with a smaller circle inside :)

I also thought it was pretty magical how well the zipper matches the purply-grey bits. Confession: I pulled it out of my stash, and it’s one of those weird colors that I’ve had forever and never used because it was just so weird (and 7″ long). I can’t even tell you how delighted I was when I realized what a great match it ended up being. The little things!

My slashed zipper insertion went in pretty perfectly, if I do say so myself.

The hem is finished with 2″ horsehair braid – a whopping 4 yards, to be precise. Rather than blind stitch 4+ yards of hem by hand, I sewed 2 rows on by machine. It’s not invisible by any means, but I think it looks pretty good as a design detail! And the horsehair braid adds such a nice flounce to the hem – I personally don’t care for circle skirts without some kind of oomph down there (on me, at least, they hang kind of funny & look limp otherwise). I’ve eyeballed Sunni’s petersham ribbon on a curved hem deal, and I love the subtle effect it gives but I haven’t tried it yet – mostly because every time I get hold of petersham ribbon, I just want to rub it all over my face forever. Is that weird? I guess that is kind of weird.

This is a pretty giant plaid, huh? I originally bought this fabric from Denver Fabrics, anticipating a cute little plaid dress (view A of Vogue 8667, to be precise), but once I actually got the fabric in my greedy little hands I realized I was not in the mood to match that enormous repeat. So the fabric went into my stash – for a year (or has it been two?) When I went through my big fabric reorganization effort, I pulled out the plaid yet again and wondered what the heck I could do with it.

Make a circle skirt, duh!

I’ll keep this recap simple: I used my self-drafted circle skirt pattern, courtesy of Casey’s sew-along. My plaid was big enough where I didn’t have to cut any seams – it’s just a circle with a little circle in the middle! I lined it in bright yellow Bemberg rayon – also no seams, yaaaay – and sewed 3″ horsehair braid at the bottom for a nice floof. The waistband is interfaced with horsehair interfacing (lots of horsies went into the making of this skirt, it would seem…), which I opted to top-stitch down to keep it from stretching out (something my previous circle skirt has been slowly doing, sadly, despite stay-stitching and everything). The back is closed with a button. Besides letting the thing hang for 48 hours, this was a really quick project!

IT’S SO BRIGHT.

Some yellow lining for your troubles

In all it’s circular glory

lol I tried to take a twirl shot… it sort of worked out…

I guess you want to see it without the belt, huh? I cut the waistband on the bias to avoid doing any plaid-matching.

Here’s the back. That bright yellow line is actually the bright yellow zipper – if I’d known it was going to stand out so much, I would have made a better attempt to hide it in the plaid design. O well.

I finished this up on Friday night & wore it to the Flea Market on Saturday… these pictures were taken post-Flea (hence my frazzled hair). I went onward with two things in mind – buttons for the Violet blouse, and yellow lace for this skirt. And look – the gods of the Flea Market were smiling down on me!

No pictures of me wearing it all lacy-like, though. SORRY.

Speaking of the Flea Market, ahem…

Check out my haul trolololol

I’m not going to post every single thing I picked up, but here are my two favorite patterns-
Slip!

Pants!

All kinds of notions & buttons! I am the most excited about the bound buttonhole maker – I’ve been looking for one of these babies for a few months now! I don’t even know how much I paid for it because it was in a giant bag of stuff for $4. Also excited about those little flower buttons on the bottom – there are several in that container, although they are dirty as hell so they will definitely be getting a good cleaning soon.

Well I think I just ran out of things to say so I’m just going to end this here.

Since my coat will not be ready for it’s unveiling this week, I embroidered a little L tag to make me feel better:
I just love putting these tags in my garments (and making them, too!). I think they really pull the piece together and give it a nice little personalized touch – you know, since sewing/hand-tailoring/fitting the damn thing wasn’t personalized enough. (this is where I roll my eyes)

Also, I love embroidery! I don’t get to do it enough, but I just find it so relaxing & free-flowing. This particular monogram is from Hoop Love Vintage Transfers – I use transfer paper to draw the design directly onto muslin, and then fill it with pretty embroidery stitches :) This piece has satin stitch, back stitch around the satin stitch, and split stitch swirlies. Yay! I DO feel better, thanks for asking!

I will be making the Colette Violet out of some nice sheer white dotted swiss – I barely had enough to cut my pattern out (the under collar is actually pieced – whoops), but I managed :) This fabric is SUPER sheer, though, so the body is underlined with cotton batiste, and I replaced the interfacing with a sturdy muslin (collar, facings). Debating on whether or not to underline the sleeves – what do you think? The fabric is still pretty sheer even with the underlining. Mostly I don’t feel like hand-basting anymore but I’ll totally take one for the team if need be. Opinions, please!

The skirt fabric – some poly blend plaid that I picked up at Denver Fabrics a year or so ago. I love how bright it is, but yeesh that plaid repeat is GIANT! I think it translates nicely into a circle skirt. I let myself buy a couple yards of bright yellow rayon lining… and a piece of matching petersham ribbon to stabilize the waistband. That creepy black blob in the corner is 3″ horsehair braid for the hem. Oh yuck, I just noticed that you can see part of a broken button in that picture too. Ew quit haunting my dreams.

These are all cut out and ready to be sewn up – the skirt has been hanging for about 2 days now, and I just finished basting all the underlining for the shirt. First non-coat of 2012, yo!

and i’m back to sewing! betcha thought i was gone for reals, huh? too bad!

who participated in the circle skirt sew-along? i had a little issue with time – aka, life got in the way – so i wasn’t able to finish in time for the first ’round of circle skirt party 2011. i was able to finish last night, though! and i’m wearing my new circle skirt today! and lucky me – i spilled coffee all over it this morning so it even smells good! /sarcasm.

this was a really easy pattern to draft & put together. i was able to smoosh mine out of one piece of fabric & eliminate any side seams (well, on the shell fabric – the lining was only 45″ wide, so there are seams in there!). although i was a tiny bit ambitious with my original length, and ended up cutting about 5″ off the finished piece. yikes! longer skirts & i just don’t mix, i’m afraid.

my shell fabric is a lovely wool tweed i bought at the flea market for $3. it actually has a herringbone pattern, which you can see on the swatch. it is lined with silky bemberg rayon – my favorite! i went with a pretty pink because, well, pink lining! the zipper is a faced slash zipper, hand-picked. i ran out of my original tweed fabric (or, rather, i had already done away with the scraps because that is how i roll), so it is faced with brown cotton… which i’m thinking was probably for the best, as the tweed is a slightly loose weave & tends to unravel. dropping in the lining was easy: i slashed a zipper opening & slipstitched it to the zipper. the top was basted to the top of the skirt shell, which is covered by the waistband. the lining is hemmed with a rolled hem and the shell has 2″ horsehair braid all around the edges – i used a little over 4 yards of braid! and i hand-stitched it all because i clearly have nothing better to do with my time.

lol ~twirl

lining! :D

i really love the shape the horsehair braid gives the hem. it has a very nice subtle flair. i actually have a petticoat i made using sugardale’s tutorial (which is AMAZING, by the way. this is a good ‘un, people!), but i prefer the way the skirt looks with the braid. also, i made my petticoat with horsehair crinoline, so it has great body but EW ITCHY.